Apparatuses and methods for endoscopic 3D data collection are known in the art. For instance, U.S. 20060055942 A1 discloses a method for endoscopic distance measuring that is based on parallax shift of projected measuring points onto the observed object. Methods of this type are relatively robust, but the precision depends decisively on the triangulation base, which is always closely limited in endoscopic applications. In addition, these methods must make do with relatively few data points.
Patent DE 10 2006 017 003 A1 discloses an endoscope for depth acquisition in which a modulated light signal is emitted and the modulation parameters of the received light signal are used for computing the depth data. Two image sensors can receive radiation by means of a plane half-permeable mirror used as a beam splitter, where one of said sensors picks up the modulation parameters that can be used to produce 3D data, while the other mirror is provided to receive a visual image of the endoscopic scene.
It is often desirable to be able also to employ other types of image sensors, for instance to receive IR or spectrally sectioned or dissolved images and to depict or evaluate them together with the 3D data. Various types of image sensors, however, frequently have various formats or image diagonals. In the arrangement described in DE 10 2006 017 003 A1, then, only the image field of the smallest sensor can be used completely. If the image sensor with the smallest active surface is completely used, then with an image sensor having a greater surface, only part of the surface remains unused.